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Title	Photograph of E. H. Sothern, ' Hamlet';
Date	n.d.
Date era	1890-1910
Production	Hamlet
Character roles	E. H. Sothern (Hamlet)
Artistic roles	E. H. Sothern (Actor)
Genre	Shakespeare tragedy
Theme	Shakespeare
Item description	Black and white photograph of actor E. H. Sothern in the role of Hamlet. He is pictured in profile from the neck up.
Object narrative	E. H. Sothern (1859-1933) was born in the United States to British actor E. A. Sothern, was raised and began his acting career in England, and then returned to the United States in 1883, staying for the majority of this career. By 1887, he had been hired to play romantic leading roles in Daniel Frohman'; s company. For the next twelve years, he would create many successful roles for Frohman, including the auctioneer from The Highest Bidder and Rudolf III/Rassendyl from The Prisoner of Zenda. From early in his career it was his dream to play Hamlet, but these opportunities never seemed to work out... His first attempt at the role occurred in 1900, but during the first week of performances he was injured when he struck Laertes'; s rapier to the ground during their Act V sword-fight. The point of the rapier pierced Sothern'; s shoe, tearing away a toenail. Blood poisoning would eventually set in, closing the show. When he took the production on tour after recovering later that year, the sets and costumes were destroyed by a fire at the Grand Opera House in Cincinnati. His chance for a successful production of Hamlet finally came when he partnered with Julia Marlowe in 1904 for a three-year touring contract performing various Shakespearean works. Their first year they performed Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado About Nothing. Marlowe played Ophelia to his Hamlet, and their rise to notoriety as the foremost Shakespearean actors of their day began. This is a black and white photograph of Sothern in the role of Hamlet.
Original format	Portrait photo
Repository	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/)
Collection	MSS255 Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection
Series	10.1.1 Photographs, Cards, Caricatures/Satire and Other Pictoral Materials -- Photographs -- People
Finding aid link	http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml
Preferred citation	[Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
Copyright	http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/copyright
Object ID	MSS255_B89_003
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304
Digital collection homepage	http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Hansen

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Home Photograph of E. H. Sothern, 'Hamlet'

Photograph of E. H. Sothern, 'Hamlet'

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